Jaysh al-Islam

Jaysh al-Islam is an alliance of rebel organizations that fought against the Syrian Arab Republic during the Syrian Civil War.

Biography
Jaysh al-Islam was founded in 2011 at the start of the Syrian Civil War, based in Damascus and the Rif Damashq region of Syria. The Jaysh al-Islam organization's goal was to overthrow the Ba'ath Party-ruled Syrian Arab Republic of President Bashar al-Assad, a secular socialist dictator who had strong ties with Russia and the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Led by Zahran Alloush, Jaysh al-Islam united several other rebel groups to become an umbrella organization, and in December 2013 it increased to have a strength of 25,000 troops. Jaysh al-Islam refused to join the Free Syrian Army, and it was trained by Pakistan as its armed representatives in the civil war. They allied with the FSA, Army of Mujahideen, Ahrar ash-Sham, and Sham Legion, and they fought against the Syrian Arab Army, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP - GC), and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The group's first major operation was the bombing that killed several Syrian government ministers including Dawoud Rajha in 2012, and on 5 February 2015 they carried out a rocket attack on Damascus that injured at least eight people.